Love Your Veggies

When it comes to my ten year old and food, we have issues. She loves her dairy but is very picky about anything else she eats. Veggies are no exception. If they are green, you can pretty much give up on getting her to try them. I continue to encourage her and many times that helps. However, she is still apprehensive about trying new things. I find that if I can get her excited about veggies, she is more apt to try them. I usually do this by allowing her to help me prepare the food or by reading something neat about it. Last year she helped plant and maintain our garden and that was a great way to expose her to several different kinds of vegetables.

These days, kids are all about computers. They love to scour the internet for information and games. The brilliant makers of Hidden Valley Salad Dressings had an excellent idea. They recently introduced a new website geared toward children, to help expose them even more to the wonderful world of vegetable eating! Love Your Veggies is filled with information and games that your child is sure to love. From the website:

As part of their continued effort to help parents and educators overcome the challenges of getting children to eat their vegetables, the makers of Hidden Valley Salad Dressings have created Veggie Adventures, a free online game that can be played now at LoveYourVeggies.com. Keeping in mind a recent study that indicated that 60 percent of parents play computer games with their kids, the makers of Hidden Valley Dressings hope Veggie Adventures will be yet another tool for moms to utilize to expand their young children's appreciation for vegetables.

Veggie Adventures engages families in a three-part vegetable adventure that begins with growing vegetables on the farm and ends with serving and sharing vegetables with friends. Along with fun and easy game-play, Veggie Adventures provides players with great tips and vegetable facts meant to be transplanted outside of the gaming experience. At the end of each stage, players receive a printable certificate to commemorate their success.

My daughter loves playing Veggie Adventures and I am thrilled that she is learning lots of neat things about vegetables. I can already see excitement in her eyes when we talk of planting our garden this year. I look forward to making many yummy vegetable dishes this summer!

As always, thanks to Mom Central for alerting families to such useful and helpful products and websites!